The summary of the article could be seen as thus, “What’s the point of the Financial Regulator consumer unit when all of their surveys on credit cards, mortgages, SSIAs, motor insurance and banking charges have the same outcome – shop around?”

A little ironic given that I do remember how many scoffed at Mary Harney when she originally made her “shop around” comments upwards on 3 years ago.

We in Value Ireland have consistently shown the benefits of shopping around (here and here and here) as well as giving a little guidance on how to be smart about it in our Tips on Shopping Around.

I don’t really think that people are being told anything new any more with the “shop around” message. In m opinion it’s quite likely that it’s anything from consumer inertia to downright laziness that sees people not bother checking out alternatives when making many of the kinds of purchases mentioned above.